Venice, the 7th of October 2021. Finally, on the second day of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival, which will continue in a “widespread” manner throughout the city of Venice until the 9th of October, the time has come for one of the most awaited events of the festival’s 11th edition: a masterclass with the japanese cult director Shin’ya Tsukamoto. In the Santa Margherita Auditorium, during the interview with the festival’s artistic director Roberta Novielli, the director recounted his thirty years of experience in the cinematic world, unveiling his many “tricks of the trade” to the public, that he had to use to produce his independent films. Many snippets of his most famous pieces were also displayed during the event, starting with his debut full-length film Tetsuo (1989), with which he won the Great Prize at the Fantafestival in Rome, to his many other works displayed at the Cinematic Exhibition in Venice, such as A Snake of June (2002), which won the jury’s Special Prize in the Upstream section; Kotoko (2011), which won the Best Film Prize in the Horizon’s section, and his most recent ones Fires on the Plain (2014) and Killing (2018). The public gave a very enthusiastic response and Tsukamoto’s appearance was particularly appreciated by the enthusiasts, who finished all the available seating as soon as the reservations were opened to the public.
The selection of twelve short films of the International Competition that were screened today were also particularly rich, starting off with the japanese director Isaku Kaneko and his piece The Balloon Catcher. In his animation, a man-axe lives under constant surveillance due to the fear of the man-balloons; but a murder taints his innocence and the protagonist will have to unravel the truth to gain his freedom. The next piece is Yard Kings, from the Portuguese Vasco Alexandre, created for the Middlesex University. The short film is about the difficult childhood of Ellie, a little girl who lives in a trailer and spends her days with her friend Pete in a junkyard. After countless abusive episodes between her mom and her stepfather, the protagonist will try to fight back, with surprising strength and courage.
The Czech director Dominik György presented The Next One: it tells the story of a girl who, after the changes in the termination of pregnancy laws in Czechoslovakia in 1989, thinks of having an abortion. The reality in hospitals and the relations with doctors reflect the time period’s situation, and the protagonist, while trying to achieve her intention, begins questioning herself. The next screening was of The Boy Who Walked Barefoot, by Gracjana Piechula, Krysztof Kiéslowski Film School’s student. The short film tells the story of a young stable boy who likes to walk barefoot in his horse farm, a place where he has always experienced a special bond with animals. The love he feels for a young woman and a painful discovery will push him to let go of his past and give up his gift to become a man. Next on the big screen was Dayfly, by the young director Yi Baoxingcheng, who is currently studying animation at the Communication University of China. Using the dayflies’ well-known brief lifespan as his narrative prompt, this short film represents the director’s reflection on how brief and intense life can be. These short-lived insects, in fact, only live for approximately 24 hours; the same amount of time in which the three character’s short stories take place: that of a child, a young woman, and an old man. Marc Carmardons then introduced his work Pile of Salt, a short film made during his second year at the ESCAC University of Barcelona. This piece, which is rich with references to the world of visual arts, was based on an autobiographical experience, and its plot revolves around Mateo, a diligent and faithful seminarian. His encounter with classmate Salvador unleashes in him a strong homoerotic desire, leading him to start seriously doubting his own faith. Referencing the biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah, Carmardons tells a tale of everlasting conflict between the strict Catholic faith and homosexual desire. The competition went on with the screening of ‘Vegetariani’ by the Italian director Marco Mazzone, from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (the Experimental Center of Cinematography) of Rome. In the countryside of Southern Italy, a hunter brings his son to join him on a hunt, giving him the opportunity to shoot; the experience entices the boy to repeat it with a friend a few hours later. The title, intentionally thought-provoking, suggests an ironic and conflicting reading key, in total contrast with what the viewer sees in the movie. The Serbian director Jovana Avramovic, a Faculty of Dramatic Arts graduate from the university in Belgrade, partakes in the contest with her movie ‘Days Lost’. The protagonist is an eighteen years-old girl, disenchanted and misunderstood by both her family and the small town she lives in. When her brother’s girlfriend visits her family, Olja feels betrayed by the only reference point she had, and abandoned in a place where she no longer belongs. With this film, the director questions various topics that are dear to her, starting from the downfall of her country’s small towns, the aspirations that they offer the younger generations, and the families’ inside relations that tend to always be tense. The Indian director Roopkatha Purakayastha’s piece, ‘Chiffon’, tells the story of Bijoli, both a women’s clothes tailor and an old woman’s caregiver, who lives a lonesome life in the city of Mundane. Her daily life is turned upside down when an unexpected visitor enters her sewing shop making an uncommon request. A film in dull colours that speaks about solitude, estrangement, and the constant dialogue between past and present. In the short film Weightlessness by the Russian director Lyubov Knyazeva, a talented dancer who dedicated all his life to ballet, goes through a profound crisis due to a sudden foot injury. His obsessive search for artistic perfection turns out to be a stressed quest for inner peace that slowly becomes a reflection upon the meaning of life itself. The detailed photography, immersive music, and essential dialogues support the main character through his path towards his rebirth. The Heart of the Volcano, by the Mexican director Montserrat Cattaneo displays a completely different setting. As the title suggests, the stunning presence of the volcano fills the background of this short movie, in a magical and mystical environment: magic, nature, and a grave silence play a key role in helping the main character save the father from absolute evil. Last but not least, The Other, a brief short project by Ako Zandkarimi and Saman Hosseinpour: with no dialogues at all, they adopted color expressiveness to describe the tragic emotions linked to a family in mourning. The main character, strongly attached to his religious traditions but tormented by doubts, lives with the grievance for his loss and the research of truth.
Today the recurring appointment with The Suspended Glance was also presented, the program dedicated to Italian video art curated by Elisabetta Di Sopra, a regular collaborator of the festival. This year, the Italian animated works featured in the Yearbook have been examined, with the collaboration of Silvia Grandi, professor of art history at the University of Bologna. During the event, the 14 animated shorts collected in the program were screened, including ‘Topo Glassato al cioccolato’ by Donato Sansone and ‘A Bunch of Fingertips’ by Barbara Brugola. Although the works are diverse and created with different techniques, their leitmotif is the importance of the continuous digital evolution, a tool that allows the creation of avant-garde artistic expressions, especially in the field of animation.
The day began with the VideoContest “Francesco Pasinetti” which, now in its 18th edition, has renewed once again its collaboration with the Short. The Competition, curated by Daniela Manzolli and directed by Michela Nardin, pays attention to short films that deal with various social, cultural, and environmental themes, linked to the documentary genre and to the city of Venice. The youth are the real protagonists; just like the Short Film Festival, this contest is common ground for young people and professionals of the cinematic world. The urban aspect is the core of the Competition, which aims to claim the right to live in welcoming realities where diversity is a source of richness and pleasant discovery. For the occasion, the winners of the previous edition of the VideoContest were screened: Eggshell by Ryan William Harris, winner of the First Prize, Extra Sauce by Alireza Ghasemi for the Best Photography Award and Camillo Valle‘s I canti del pescatore d’acqua, that, through the representation of minor and sometimes forgotten realities, won the “Tutta la città insieme” Award, a section dedicated to the city of Venice, containing, and summarising the main message of the event.
Subsequently, the Young Filmmakers at Ca’ Foscari programme was introduced. It has now reached its fourth edition, with the works made by the students from the Master course in Fine Arts in Filmmaking at Ca’ Foscari. A year of experimentation within the cinematographic field gave birth to pieces of fiction, documentaries, experimental films, publicities, music videos and also to the debut novel by a newly graduated Master student: Virtuoso by Nico Amedeo, allowing their creators to range across the broad linguistic and expressive panorama of the world of cinema, covering different roles and acquiring transversal skills.
Next, it was time to present the third edition of the Films in Venice and Filming in Venice summer school. It is an initiative of the Venice International University in collaboration with Ca ‘Foscari, Iuav, Tel Aviv, Waseda, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Exeter, which involved 20 students between July and September. The purpose of the summer school is to combine film theory and practice, applying them to representations of the city of Venice. Added value is given by the variety of the composition of the student body which gives the project a multidisciplinary and multicultural character, resulting in the creation of four videos made collectively.
